Who is to blame for Bihar's fake toppers?

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Who doesn't like to be famous and be interviewed by the press, TV channels, etc?  When the TV camera arrived at house of Miss. Ruby Roy, a 17-year old teenager, she probably was thrilled.  Little did she know that this little chat with the TV channel will change her life.  After being declared the topper in Political Science stream in the entire state of Bihar in the recently concluded exams, the TV camera called knocking at her door.  But in her now famous TV interview she failed to answer some of the basic questions about the subject stream she had aced.  For example, Political Science, she said teaches cooking.  This two minutes of fame meant that her results, along with many others', were invalidated.  It exposed a deep-rooted corruption in education in Bihar which resulted in many, including Miss Roy being charged of criminal offenses and arrested.

That's a quick turnaround in the life of a 17-year old.  But this raises many questions.  First, can we blame this squarely on a 17 year old?  Why not blame the parents to start with.  If money was exchanged (allegedly several thousands), surely this child could not have come up with such a big amount of money on her own. Further, she on her own, probably could not have contacted the people in Bihar's education mafia to get favors.  If she indeed cheated, who were the other people helping her  in the crime?  To answer, most probably her parents arranged for all this.  In that case, why she being arrested?  Why not her parents?

But on a much deeper level, why was there a need for her parents to indulge such corrupt practices?  Was the school/college she was going to was so bad that she doesn't know political science is not cooking?  Did her parents not provide her a good environment for education?  Don't we have Right to Education in India?  But if her parents could pay for bribes, they could have probably paid for a better school too.  Or she could have have been home-schooled.  However, it seems her parents were not necessarily interested in getting her educated in the first place but their goal was buying a degree only.  

Finally, one can only imagine the psychological stress this child is going through and no one is even talking about it.  Is she being counseled for the stress?  I am sure it is not easy.  I also know there are no easy answers.  But something to munch on.

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